Continuing our look at the Australian players who were competing overseas during the 2021-22 season. Today features Australians in Germany.
Andrew MacWilliam: Second season in Germany with EHC Red Bull München. Playing in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) he recorded four points and a +10 plus/minus from his 35 games. MacWilliam also competed in four games in the Champions Hockey League before München was knocked out in the semifinals by the Finnish team Tappara. On 18 July MacWilliam signed with Austrian club EC Red Bull Salzburg for the 2022-23 ICE Hockey League season.
Chris Schutz: First season in Germany after spending 2020-21 in the ECHL. Playing for Lippe-Hockey-Hamm in the Oberliga Schutz finished as the top goal scorer in the Nord division with 50 goals and also recorded 28 assists from 48 games. In March Schutz signed a one year extension with Lippe-Hockey-Hamm for the 2022-23 season.
Oberliga is a decent quality level in Germany. Glad Schutz is doing well there. Has he been approached about representing Australia at the World Championships? Would not involve a lot of traveling to Spain from Germany. The same applies to MacWilliam, not a lot of travel from Salzburg to Spain.
It’s great pro/rel has resumed to the DEL2 and has been extended back to the DEL now. Makes the German system a lot better. Though I still can’t believe my team, Kassel, failed to get promoted to the DEL last season after dominating the last of the non-promotion DEL2 seasons.
I assume both players wouldn’t be eligible for the Australian national team as they don’t seem to have any junior history on their EP profiles. But that could just be as a result of a lack of information.
I do like the setup that Germany has running, the promotion and relegation makes things a lot more interesting.